A Day out in Eastern Brabant

Living in the Eindhoven metropolitan area, I never realised there was so much military aviation activity this close by. We have, of course, Eindhoven Air Base, home to the Air Mobility Command of our Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force. From here they fly the C-130 Hercules, the A330 MRTT tanker/transport and a single Gulfstream IV for government and VIP flights. Since it's a dual civil-military field, there's plenty of airline traffic mixed in too.

Then there's the nearby low-flying area GLV-5, tucked against a large army training area on the heath, where helicopters from nearby Gilze-Rijen regularly come to practise their low-flying skills.

And we have Volkel Air Base, where 312 and 313 Squadrons are based, flying the F-35, the type that recently took over from the trusty old F-16.

So, after living here for so many years, I figured I'd take a weekday off to visit Volkel and maybe try GLV-5 as well. It was a really nice warm day and I arrived fairly early at Volkel. It was eerily quiet, and I was afraid nothing would fly. But after a little while I heard some engines spool up, and before long several F-35s came out of the woodwork to take off for a morning mission.

They returned before lunch, which gave me time to drive back towards Eindhoven for a nice walk on the heath of GLV-5. I heard one or two Chinooks, and before I knew it I was standing in awe of their (low) flying skills. So in awe, in fact, that I forgot to head over to the "spotters bos", resulting in being thoroughly sandblasted by a Chinook landing right nearby.